The Department of Government Efficiency officially wrapped up its work last month, and its demise was worth celebrating. DOGE has long been exposed as an experiment in amateurism that failed to achieve its stated goals.

That said, Americans are still dealing with the fallout of DOGE’s work, and we’re frequently confronted with fresh evidence of its lingering legacy.

Take the impact on farmers, for example. The New York Times reported:

Across the country, farmers and rural residents describe struggling to obtain the basic services the Agriculture Department is meant to offer, including loans and grants, technical assistance and financing for housing and utilities. Sharp attrition under the Trump administration, largely through voluntary resignations and dismissals by the Department of Government Efficiency, have left many of the Agriculture Department’s local offices with skeletal staffing — and, in some counties, with no one at all.

The ripple effects of the Agriculture Department’s depleted work force illustrate how the Trump administration’s mission of shrinking the federal bureaucracy has undercut a competing priority: delivering for farmers, a core political constituency.

The Times’ report added that the practical consequences of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s failings include “increasing barriers to entry for new farmers who need more assistance, impeding assistance to producers already facing tough economic conditions, and hampering basic services and government aid in the most remote and poorest places.”

Democratic Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, the ranking member of the Senate’s rural development panel, told the newspaper, “All these practical things that make the wheels go around in a community were facilitated by USDA, and it was with staff who knew how to navigate and had the trust of the local community. … It’s something that was working, was working well, and was very cost-efficient. And now it is being demolished.”

The picture the White House and its allies want to paint is of an administration that has championed the needs of farmers. In June, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas appeared on Newsmax and said, “No one’s done more for American agriculture and rural America than President Trump, [Agriculture] Secretary [Brooke] Rollins and a Republican-only Congress.”

Reality tells a different story. As MS NOW host Catherine Rampell explained soon after, pointing to tariffs, deportations and food aid cuts, “I think few people in American history have done more to screw over farmers than Donald Trump has in a very compressed period of time.”

Marc Short, who served as Trump’s White House director of legislative affairs followed by a stint as then-Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, similarly explained in a Washington Post op-ed in June that Trump’s policies “have punched farmers in the mouth.” From the piece:

Last year, America’s crop farmers lost $34.6 billion, and farm bankruptcies surged to numbers not seen since 2020, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. This year, 70 percent of farmers surveyed claim they cannot afford all the fertilizers they need. Fuel costs continue to rise as the Iran conflict remains unresolved and the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

Ninety-four percent of farmers reported that their financial situation has “worsened or remained the same” since last year. Fifteen thousand farms closed in 2025 alone. The New York Times chronicles the closing of American family farms: Bankruptcies were up 55 percent in 2024, 46 percent in 2025 and 70 percent by May of this year.

While many Americans have suffered as a result of the president’s agenda, near the top of the list are farmers, many of whom voted for the Republican ticket in 2024, only to be rewarded with nothing but regressive policies that undermined the entire agricultural sector.

In early June, the president appeared on “Meet the Press.” When NBC News’ Kristen Welker reminded him that 70% of Americans farmers said in a recent survey that they can’t afford fertilizer, Trump quickly interrupted and said, “The farmers are doing very well.”

There’s overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

The post Effects of DOGE cuts add to farmers’ many Trump administration woes appeared first on MS NOW.

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From MS Now.